“So where you been?” asks no one in particular yet he uses this as a cliché intro to talk about a thing.

Skroode has been quiet for…a month? Really a month? I have to apologize for that. The life, she demands our time and this last month was an occasion where I had to answer the call.

This time of year is busy for a lot of people. A tradition in our house is The Christmas Card. Sometime back in 2003 we started making card to send. That year I reached a point where I was having a long arduous time finding any card I liked in the stores. I had been making cards for holidays for my wife long before we were married, so we decided to make our own.

So this is year 13 and every year since November means ‘time to come up with an idea’. So this year skroode took an unplanned short break as I pulled a card together from the “I guess this will work” idea to “Thank God it’s done” printing. It’s a simple ink/watercolor/pencil/whatever else is in arms reach affair.

The front:

Then of course, the inside:

We include a little image on the back, like the things you find on the cards in the stores as a small bonus joke. There was Discussion this year, as the first idea was judged “probably not quite right for many of the audience”:

I don’t think anyone wants to walk Great Great Aunt Ida through the humor there. So we went with:

Colored by the kids. They don’t realize it but this is so I can foist the whole thing off on them in five years.

Let’s start sharing some sketchbook stuff in 2015 shall we? The gruesome, rough, inky trough from which each strip emerges into the world. More or less.

This random page was apparently during a Torrence the Triffid run, just playing with the angriest plant in the world and seeing what he was up to, judging if any had potential for sharing.

Also we have a few fairies roaming in the lower right. When I have my sketchbook out my daughter will often ride shotgun and commandeer the pen or make requests for certain topics. “Draw a fairy!” She says this knowing she will get two pictures. The first will be delivered the way a questionable genie delivers wishes – with some aspect warped intentionally. The second as she wanted in the first place.

There was a short discussion on “How do you draw hands?”. However it did not fit in the 60 second attention span so all we got is a couple rough hands floating about.